Human Rights Def. Ctr. v. Baxter Cnty.
| Decision Date | 25 April 2019 |
| Docket Number | CASE NO. 5:17-CV-3070 |
| Citation | 384 F.Supp.3d 998 |
| Parties | HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENSE CENTER, Plaintiff v. BAXTER COUNTY, ARKANSAS, Defendant |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Arkansas |
Masimba M. Mutamba, Pro Hac Vice, Daniel Marshall, Attorney at Law, Lake Worth, FL, Paul J. James, James & Carter PLC, Arkansas, AR, Sabarish P. Neelakanta, Human Rights Defense Center, Boynton Beach, FL, Bruce E. H. Johnson, Caesar D. Kalinowski, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, Seattle, WA, for Plaintiff.
Jason E. Owens, Jason Owens Law Firm, P.A., Conway, AR, Thomas J. Diaz, Rainwater, Holt & Sexton, P.A., Little Rock, AR, for Defendant.
On January 30, 2019, the above-captioned matter came on for a bench trial before the Court. Over the next three days, the Court heard testimony from witnesses and received exhibits into evidence. At the conclusion of the trial, the Court directed the parties to submit post-trial briefing. Plaintiff Human Rights Defense Center's ("HRDC") post-trial brief was submitted on February 15, 2019. See Doc. 101. Defendant Baxter County's ("the County") post-trial brief was submitted on March 1, 2019. See Doc. 102. At the same time that HRDC submitted its post-trial brief, the County also filed a motion seeking partial reconsideration of the Court's Opinion on the parties' cross-motions for summary judgment. See Doc. 99. HRDC's response in opposition to that motion was submitted on March 1, 2019. See Doc. 103. Having received and reviewed the evidence and briefs submitted in this case, the Court issues the following Memorandum Opinion and Order resolving the County's new motion and setting out its findings of fact and conclusions of law on the remaining claims.
HRDC is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with principal offices in Lake Worth, Florida. HRDC's purpose is to "educate prisoners and the public about the destructive natures of racism, sexism, and the economic and social costs of prisons to society." (Doc. 1, p. 3). HRDC "accomplishes its mission through litigation, advocacy, and publication and/or distribution of books, magazines and other information concerning prisons and prisoner rights." (Doc. 26-1, p.1).1 To accomplish its mission, HRDC publishes and distributes Prison Legal News , a monthly legal magazine which contains news about prisons, prisoners' rights, and prison facilities and conditions, among other things. In addition to its 72-page magazine Prison Legal News , HRDC also publishes and distributes The Habeas Citebook , books about the criminal justice system, self-help books for prisoners, and informational packets that contain subscription order forms and a book list. HRDC distributes these mailings to monthly subscribers (civilians and prisoners alike) and to prisoners in 2,600 correctional facilities across the county, including in Arkansas.
HRDC alleges that the County2 implemented and adhered to an unconstitutional mail policy that prohibited the delivery of HRDC's publication materials to prisoners at the Baxter County Jail and Detention Center ("the Jail"). In 2012, the County adopted a new mail policy that requires all non-privileged, non-legal incoming mail to be limited to postcards. As a result of this policy, HRDC alleges that the County refused to deliver issues and sample issues of Prison Legal News , The Habeas Citebook , informational packets, order forms, and court opinions sent by HRDC to prisoners held in the Jail. HRDC alleges that the County's actions violated its constitutional rights, limited its ability to distribute its messages and obtain new customers, and thereby frustrated its organizational mission.
HRDC initially sued the County alongside individual officers who were allegedly instrumental in enacting the policy or in rejecting HRDC's repeated mailings. It also sought a preliminary injunction to enjoin continued enforcement of the policy. However, in ruling on the Defendants' Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 18) and HRDC's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction (Doc. 26), the Court determined that the individual capacity damage claims against these individuals should be dismissed on the basis of qualified immunity because the law governing HRDC's First and Fourteenth Amendment claims was not sufficiently clear to put these officials on notice that their actions were unconstitutional. See Doc. 49. In addition, because of the unsettled nature of the law in this area, the Court denied HRDC's motion for a preliminary injunction.
A little less than a month after the Court issued its ruling on these two motions, the Eighth Circuit upheld a very similar postcard-only policy against a First Amendment challenge in Simpson v. County of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. 879 F.3d 273 (8th Cir. 2018). That decision prompted the Defendants to file a renewed motion to dismiss (Doc. 50), wherein they contended that the Eighth Circuit's decision in Simpson sufficiently clarified the law to the point that the Defendants were entitled to dismissal of the Complaint. The Court construed the "motion to dismiss" as a motion for judgment on the pleadings, ultimately granting it in part and denying it in part. See Doc. 53. As a result of that opinion and order, the remaining official capacity claims were dismissed as duplicative of the claim against the County, and those individual officers were dismissed from the action.
On November 2, 2018, HRDC and the County filed cross-motions for summary judgment. HRDC contended that Simpson was readily distinguishable and that the law as applied to the facts of this case clearly demonstrated that the County's adoption and enforcement of the postcard-only policy violated its First Amendment rights. In addition, it contended that the County's failure to send individual notices each time one of its unsolicited mailings was rejected by the Jail pursuant to this policy and its failure to allow HRDC to challenge each individual rejection to another neutral official amounted to due process violations under the Fourteenth Amendment. The County, relying principally on Simpson , contended that its postcard-only policy, like the one upheld there, was constitutionally permissible under the First Amendment. As to the Fourteenth Amendment claim, the County contended that little or no process was due when it rejected these unsolicited mailings. To the extent that any process was due, the County contended that its rejection notices were more than sufficient to put HRDC on notice and that there was a statutory mechanism for bringing claims against a county that HRDC should have used.
On January 22, 2019, the Court granted in part and denied in part each party's motion for summary judgment. In particular, the Court denied the cross-motions for summary judgment as to the First Amendment claims. Relying on the language at the end of Simpson that its holding was narrow and that each policy would have to be judged based on the unique facts of each case, the Court found that there were genuine disputes of material fact that would prevent the Court from making a decision as to the constitutionality of the policy at the summary judgment stage. As to the Fourteenth Amendment claim, the Court surveyed the extensive body of case law in this area governing what procedures must accompany decisions to censor3 mail, beginning with the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Procunier v. Martinez , 416 U.S. 396, 94 S.Ct. 1800, 40 L.Ed.2d 224 (1974), overruled on other grounds by Thornburgh v. Abbott , 490 U.S. 401, 109 S.Ct. 1874, 104 L.Ed.2d 459 (1989). It then ultimately concluded, in light of persuasive decisions of the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits and dicta4 from the Supreme Court, that Procunier -style due process protections (i.e. notice and an opportunity to appeal to a neutral decision maker who was not involved in the initial decision to censor) do not strictly apply when the rejection in question results not from classic censorship ( a book based on something objectionable about its content), but rather from the routine enforcement of a content-neutral rule with general applicability.5 See, e.g. , Prison Legal News v. Livingston , 683 F.3d 201, 223-24 (5th Cir. 2012).
Of course, just because Procunier -style due process protections do not apply does not mean that no process is due. Adopting the Eleventh Circuit's approach of using the test set forth in Mathews v. Eldridge , 424 U.S. 319, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976), to determine how much process was due, this Court held that in the case of the rejection of an unsolicited mailing pursuant to a content-neutral, generally applicable regulation like a postcard-only policy, the County must provide notice of the rejection to the sender along with the reason why the mailing was being rejected. The Court declined to hold that due process allowed HRDC to appeal each decision that its mailings (i.e. the 72-page magazines) were not postcards to a second official, finding that the justifications for such protection in the context of censored mailings simply did not apply in this case and that the burdens of imposing such a formal system far outweighed the nature of the private interest that was affected. See Doc. 89, pp. 20-24 (applying the Mathews test).
Applying this law to the undisputed facts, the Court granted summary judgment in HRDC's favor for the mailings sent to prisoners in the Jail on August 5, 2016. The Court found a technical due process violation because although HRDC was given notice that those items had been rejected, it was given no reason for the rejection. The rejection notices merely said "Refused." However, the Court granted summary judgment to the County for the mailings sent on January 6th and 12th of 2017. Because these rejection notices came with a reason for rejection (a USPS sticker that said "Return to Sender Insufficient Address"), HRDC received all of the...
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